Whenever Susan and Michael Marks of Vero Beach drove west across Florida on Route 60 to visit Mike’s brother and his family in Clearwater, they were impressed by the dramatic change in scenery and intrigued by a sign that said “Westgate River Ranch: The World’s Largest Dude Ranch.”

D-Day (J-Jour to the French) began in the early morning of June 6, 1944 on a spring low tide when 150,000 Allied soldiers in a 5,000-vessel armada crossed the English Channel to disembark on a rocky, seaweed-strewn stretch of the beaches of Normandy.